Sales Management. Simplified. summary

Most sales managers started out in the business as sales people. This makes perfect sense, but since the role of a salesperson and the role of a sales manager require very different mindsets, a number of problems arise.

Salespeople are taught to be selfish with their time. If they spend too much time assisting a coworker, their own sales will suffer.

A manager’s job isn’t limited to coaching. They should also have an eye for talent and know what skills their sales team needs.

One major cause of poor performance is a failure to clearly define roles within a sales team. When this occurs, jobs end up being improperly assigned and, unsurprisingly, team members underperform and revenue is lost.

A mere generation ago, the job of sales was utterly different. Thanks to the internet, salespeople today have unprecedented access to information. But so do customers. Indeed, one of the major challenges to modern sales teams is how to attract and retain the new, hyper-informed breed of buyer.

Yet the real problem most salespeople face is much more basic: they’re not properly trained and, therefore, they’re unprepared to snatch opportunity when it arises.

Managing a sales team isn’t rocket science. In fact, you can divide the job into three simple categories: sales leadership and culture, talent management and sales process. Let’s look at the first category in this blink.

Improving the culture of your workplace is a great way to improve lackluster performance, and doing so always starts at the top and then trickles down.

To further facilitate a healthy sales culture, managers must pay strict attention to Mike Weinberg’s four R’s of successful talent management.

The first is to put the right people in the right roles.

It’s every manager’s duty to arm her team with the right tools so that it’s ready for action. But those tools won’t be very useful if the ultimate goal isn’t clear.

That’s why managers should always work with their team to come up with a list of clear strategic targets. Serious thought and consideration should be put into which customers and prospects will be the focus of the team’s efforts.

Once the sales team is in action, armed with the right tools and given clear goals, a good sales manager should focus on monitoring progress.

The most reliable monitoring happens in monthly one-on-one meetings that allow you to see where team members are at and to agree on where they’re headed.